Water is not just flowing across the surface of Mars — it’s also boiling and carving out the mysterious canals along its landscape, according to a new study.
Mars is a far colder planet than Earth but NASA discovered last year that salty ice water melts and flows along its surface during summer months when it is closer to the Sun. A study published on Tuesday in Nature Geoscience indicates that because of the thin atmosphere on the Red Planet water is likely boiling during the summer months, and can even evaporate.
This possibility of liquid evaporating in the alien atmosphere of Mars suggests there may be less water on the planet than previously thought. This does not bode well for any chances of life there, Susan Conway, a planetary geomorphologist at the University of Nantes in France who co-authored the study told Space.com.
By simulating the different conditions found on Mars to see how it interacted with the planet’s sandy soil, the researchers discovered that the water boiled and created streaks just like the mysterious ones on the Red Planet. The viscous, saline water can also carry along sand grains and contribute to the formation of small channels, especially because water boiling under high pressure sometimes triggers an explosion of dust.
“We already knew that water should boil under Martian conditions, but what we did not predict was that the boiling would be so intense where the water encountered the dry sediment,” Conway said. “Our results show that a very small amount of water can actually move a disproportionately large amount of sediment, more than is possible under terrestrial conditions for the same amount of water.”
The researchers were unable to simulate the gravity of Mars in their experiments, however, and Conway states “the boiling effects might be even more intense under Martian gravity,” adding that only future expeditions to the Red Planet can find out for sure.
“Our preliminary work suggests even more weird effects happen,” Conway said.
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Boiling Water Likely Carved Slopes on Mars originally appeared on usnews.com
